


A Bond Cut Short

by Wingzrooke



Series: The Soulmate Chronicles [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Multi, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 15:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15464673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wingzrooke/pseuds/Wingzrooke
Summary: There is a price unspoken for learning magic. If you want to graduate and become a full member of wizarding society, that is. In order to graduate, you have to pass a special test. A test they never tell you about until you must face it. Fail the test, and your magic will be bound. You will not even be considered on the level of a squib to the wizarding world. Fail it badly enough, and you are 'culled'. Sirina (Fem!Harry Potter) goes to her Eighth year end-of year exams with the best wishes of her soulmate. It may forever be her greatest regret that she never gets to say goodbye.





	A Bond Cut Short

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [As Thunder Rolls](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8082382) by [AmiLu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmiLu/pseuds/AmiLu). 
  * Inspired by [Wisps of Smoke and Colourful Souls](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8036242) by [AmiLu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmiLu/pseuds/AmiLu). 



> This story was also inspired by a lot of other Soulmate AUs, but I don't have the URLs/info to add it currently, and not all of them are on archive of our own.

 

**Chapter One – The First Cut is the deepest**

 

_“This is it.”_ Sirina Potter thought to herself as she finished the very last question on her very last school test ever. Coming back for her eighth year had been a hard decision for Sirina. She wanted very much to leave, to find her soulmate. Sirina had been able to speak to her soulmate ever since she could remember, although she still didn't know their name. They had been such a big part of her life, except for during the war when she was forced to Occlude to stop Voldemort from tracking them through Sirina's own mind. But she wanted the best for her family, once she and her soulmate met. And he'd assured her that one more year wouldn't make a difference when they had the rest of their lives to spend together. Some days it was only _his_ assurances that helped Sirina get through the day and keep coming back for more the next. Now, though, she'd finished her last test and had only the future to look forward too. Sirina knew she'd gotten enough answers right on enough tests to get at least two or three NEWTS at acceptable or higher. Two 'A' level NEWTS was the minimum requirement to be able to graduate from Hogwarts and be considered a full-class Wizarding citizen. Sirina would now be able to keep her full inheritance whether or not she was in a Wizarding school. She would be able to take her place on the Wizengamot (if she wanted too). But most importantly, she no longer had to bow to a magical guardian of any sort. They could not dictate her actions. Now, Sirina would be free to go find her soulmate. Or so she thought.

As the proctor stood up from their desk at the front of the hall, Sirina got ready to stand. Most students were practically bouncing out of their seats in their hurry to leave the testing in the great hall and get outside. The proctor held up a hand to still the students as an assistant summoned the testing scrolls to a box in the front.

“Just a moment please, students.” The proctor called, and the students murmured quietly as a wave of apprehension flowed through the great hall. Many of the students, Sirina among them, looked around to see what was happening. The first thing they noticed was the aurors who had come in silently while they tested and now stood in front of every doorway, guarding it. Sirina felt a frisson of fear rip through her, and desperately she tried to contact her soulmate through her thoughts.

_“My own!”_ she thought desperately at him, but there was no response. Instead her words bounced back at her, the sign that her soulmate had a block in place. They'd agreed before the test that he would put the wall up so neither of them would be tempted to cheat on the final tests. Sirina new her soulmate was not a wizard, but he often helped her study and had learned about the wizarding world right alongside her. So for her end of year tests, they always put the block up so she would be forced to rely on only her own knowledge. He would still feel her feelings, but she worried he would think her fear only testing nerves.

_“My own! Please hear me!”_ She thought to him, and prayed. Once again her thoughts echoed back to her. She turned her focus outwards once more as the proctor continued.

“There is one more test you have to pass, before you can graduate. You will all be called individually to a separate room to face this final test. You may leave the quills on the desks, you will not need them for this test. You will be called up in alphabetical order, and then directed to one of the ten doors behind me. Once you have completed your final test, you will not come back to the great hall. You may talk quietly while you wait as long as names are not being called. Your name will be called only twice. If you do not respond and/or fail to present yourself in a timely manner, you will automatically fail.” The proctor announced. Then he lifted a scroll of parchment, unrolled it slightly and called the first ten names, starting with 'Abbott, Hannah'.

Once the last of the ten names were called, the anxious murmuring continued. Sirina could see Hermione, Ron, Neville, and the D.A. Members who'd returned coming to join her. Quietly she waited until all were there. Once Ron joined them, Hermione finally burst.

“What do you think the final test is? I can't think of anything we learned at Hogwarts they would need to test us for that we didn't already take tests in!” Hermione hissed anxiously.

“Maybe it's a compilation test? You know, a couple questions on all the core classes we have to take?” Sirina suggested doubtfully.

“Maybe it's a citizenship test.” Ron suggested. “Since we can't be considered full citizens until we graduate? Maybe the test is how it's decided?” Ron added.

“But they didn't teach us anything about being citizens! They don't even teach us the laws, for the most part. We have to learn that from our families or on our own.” Neville pointed out, not looking any happier than the rest of them. The group continued to muse over what the test could contain, and worry until each member was called away. Sirina sat with Ron, some of the last too be called from their group.

Though she did not mention it to the others, Sirina was thinking about the end of year feast. How it always took place at the end of year tests, and how the graduating Seventh Year students never looked as exuberant as Sirina thought she herself would feel upon graduating. Instead they seemed to be exhausted and wrung out, some wracked with fear or other unnameable emotions. Worse, though, were the seventh year students who never showed up to the end of year feast. The students who supposedly 'went home early'.

“Good luck, Ri.” Ron whispered as Sirina's name was finally called from the front.

“I don't have a good feeling about this. Be careful, Ron.” Sirina admitted to him as she stood and made her way up to the proctor.

“Potter, Sirina. Door two.” The proctor said shortly, pointing at the second door from the left behind where the staff table usually stood. Sirina nodded her thanks and drifted over to the door in a cloud of worry and fear. She kept trying to reach her soulmate, praying he would hear her. Her instincts told Sirina it was important to try reaching him, that he would feel her repeated attempts to breach his wall. But the wall didn't waiver in the slightest. She cursed loudly in her mind. Surely her soulmate should realize that she had never attempted to cheat on a test since they first talked about it when Sirina had her first First Grade test ever. The repeated attempts to get his attention, combined with her absolute-bone-chilling-fear and dread should have alerted him something was wrong. Why wasn't he answering her?!

Of course it was possible that all her fear was for nothing, that she was exaggerating the dire-ness of what she now faced. Sirina didn't think so, though. Her soulmate had once told her of the famed “Vongola Intuition,” and likened her own instinctive knowledge to that line gift. Her instincts had never yet lead her wrong. And right now they sent adrenaline surging through her body, along with a deep instinctive, _primal_ fear. Even when she'd been facing her own death against Voldemort, she hadn't felt this afraid.

Then she was opening the door and stepping through. A small room met her on the other side. Quietly she closed the door behind her as she inspected the room. In the center of the small room was a rectangular table, the longer side facing the door she had just come through. A new proctor sat on the other side of the table, with a strange metal contraption sitting in front of them. There was no other door or window, and Sirina's already taught and frayed nerves shot up about ten levels higher. Silently Sirina slipped into the seat on her side of the table, facing the proctor. The proctor himself looked like some middle-aged mid-level bureaucrat. Everything about the man screamed average and unremarkable. Sirina had a feeling she now sat across from an unspeakable covered in glamours and charms to make him or her unrecognizable. She didn't want to know why they would need Unspeakables to administer tests to students. And she really didn't want to know why the person before her would not want them to be able to recognize who had proctored their test. Most of all, Sirina really didn't want to know why there was only one door into the room, and why when she twisted around to check, that door had vanished so there were no doors into or out of the room at all.

“The test is simple.” The maybe-man spoke. Their voice was also extremely average and normal. Forgettable, in other words. “You must willingly sever your soul bond or soul-bonds by placing your hand on the device in front of you and willing it with your magic.” The possibly-a-man informed Sirina in a monotone. A ripple of shock and horror jerked through Sirina, and she attempted to contact her soulmate one more time. This time the thought did not leave her mind. It didn't bounce back to her, either, she simply knew that she was alone in her own mind and nothing left it. A bright flash shone from the metal device. The proctor tutted.

“You will not be able to contact your soulmate or soulmates from this room. All bond abilities are nullified in this room, especially communication.” The proctor chided. “You must make this decision on your own.” He added, not unkindly but without care.

“Why?” Sirina gasped at him, feeling like she was drowning and couldn't breathe.

“For the continued existence and the good of our society. When Wizards and Witches first started formal schooling, there was a prophecy given. A student who graduated from formal wizarding training, with their soul bond intact, would be the end of the wizards and witches. The end of all magic as we know it. If you wish to become a part of wizarding society and graduate from Hogwarts, you must willingly relinquish your soulmate bond. Nothing stops you from finding your soulmate afterwards and having a proper bonding ceremony to join you together, if you wish. But the soul mate bond cannot be allowed to remain in a graduate. The prophecy is clear.” The proctor replied flatly.

“What happens if we don't?” Sirina asked shakily, thinking surely it wasn't _that_ important to graduate Hogwarts. Nothing came before Her Own, after all. The only reason she'd even come back to graduate was so she could better provide for and protect her soulmate. He'd even told her it was unnecessary! He was strong enough to protect them both, and he had his own income with plenty of savings. Though he had urged her to complete her schooling if she wanted too, anyways.

“Then you will be stripped on any inheritances, titles, positions, and magical items you possess. Your magic will be bound, and you will be an Untouchable. Considered unclean. You will not be able to get employment in the wizarding world, nor make purchases. The goblins will not exhange money for you nor grant you access to any other source of funding. Any money you had in the bank will be given to the scholarship fund for underprivileged students, so that Hogwarts and other magical schools in our country can replace you with those worthy of holding full citizenship. You will also be denied the right of a bonding ceremony, and the use of government facilities like Saint Mungo's. Furthermore, your magic will be fully bound and you will be cast out without any sort of references or help.” The probably-a-wizard intoned in a bored 'I've-already-repeated-this-speech-a-million-times-today' voice.

For a brief moment, Sirina contemplated taking out the Wizard before her. She didn't have to graduate, true, but she wasn't going to let her magic be bound, either. It was as much a part of her as breathing. As much a part of her as her amber aspect. She could not, would not give it up. Sirina knew she was strong, regarded as one of the strongest Witches out there. She could definitely take him, she thought. And she'd get out even if she had to bombarda her way through the walls, floor, or ceiling. She was no longer a helpless little orphan stuck in a cupboard. She refused to let that be here. As though he sensed her thoughts, he spoke once more.

“If you try to fight or break your way out, you will be **culled**.” He informed her, and Sirina went cold. She may not be quite as smart as Hermione, but Sirina knew that 'culling' was the practice of selectively slaughtering animals. “We cannot allow someone who is not dedicated enough to the Wizarding World to insure it's survival to leave without consequences. You are either a part of the Wizarding World, a part of the Muggle World, or Culled.” The could-be-a-woman-in-disguise added flatly. “Besides which, we do not wish the … bad genes of one who cannot be bound to escape and make their way back into the Wizarding World in further generations. Selective Breeding, if you will.” Sirina nodded jerkily. She understood alright, but she hated the choice and the person now before her. It was rather obvious now why that _thing_ in front of her wanted to hide. Reprisals would have been high and furious amongst those who loved their soulmates or the possibility of a soulmate. Silently Sirina mourned. She knew what she had to choose, though she would never forgive herself.

After coming back from Voldemort killing her, her soulmate made her promise, with her magic in an unbreakable vow with Hermione that she would never again submit willingly to death. And Sirina new with every fiber of her being that she _would_ die without her magic. Besides which, students were taught during their very first class what happened to those who had their magic bound. Magic was such an integral part of a person that they would slowly fade away, dying a torturous and painful death as their body starved without the magic which had once sustained it.

Not only would Sirina die if she broke the oath, but Hermione and Ron would as well, as they had both sworn they would not _let_ her submit to death again if they were near. She literally _could not_ make that choice. She could not sacrifice all three of their lives in a selfish bid for the comfort of hearing her soulmate in her own mind. He would still _be_ her soulmate, after all. She had only one option besides death. But still....

“And how would you stop me? You think your magic is a match for my own?” Sirina growled lowly, not able to help pushing at least a little. The other person smiled wanly.

“It is, but it does not need to be. You see, neither of our magics will work in this room, except through the device on the table. And it is heavily enchanted with binding runes that will let it serve only one purpose: the severing of a bond.” The man informed her happily. He even smiled a little bit, and Sirina really wanted to rip the smile off his face and shove it through his cheerful blue eyes. How she hated blue eyes now. How she hated the being before her. The utter scumbag. Carefully Sirina tested her magic, attempting to force it to her fingertip in a small spark, one of the first uses of her magic she'd ever done intentionally. Nothing happened. As soon as her magic met the air, it stopped. She could not use her magic. With trepidation and horror at what she was about to do, even knowing that they could have a bonding ceremony later if she wished...Sirina's hand shook as she leaned forward and placed it upon the device. She looked up at the man pleadingly, begging for him to take this choice from her. To, at the very least, activate the magic so she didn't have to be the one to sever a bond she held sacred. The man looked back unblinkingly, but no offer of help was forthcoming. Steeling herself, Sirina drew her magic to the surface once more, all her instincts for once a quiet and trembling ball in the back of her mind.

He would still _be_ her soulmate, after all, right? And she could still find him. Somehow. She mourned once more for the loss of her beloved Hedwig. This time she didn't mourn just the owl herself, though. This time she mourned that she did not have Hedwig who had met Sirina's bonded and would have been able to deliver a message that Sirina was still alive. For the first time, Sirina regretted not getting another owl and sending a message to her soulmate. Like most types of bonds, those soulmates whose bond permitted them to speak mind-to-mind were not able to learn their partner's name until they actually met. No one knew quite why, although Wizarding theorists thought it was magics way of protecting a soulmate from a partner who might reject a soulmate, or from forcing underage soulmates to complete the bond early. Regardless of the reason why it happened, now Sirina wasn't even able to send a message to Her Own about what she now did.

Slowly, reluctantly, as though her magic felt the horror and unnaturalness of what they were doing, her magic rolled from her open palm down into the shiny metal dome beneath her hand. Softly and small at first, a pain began to build in the center of Sirina's mind and body. The pain rapidly grew and it encompassed Sirina's entire existence. The shredding and pulling against her bond made her scream and writhe as though she were under a crucio, but a million times worse. And it seemed never-ending. As though from far away, as she felt the very last vestiges of the bond begin shredding and being pulled upon, she heard that beast speak once more.

“You should know, an oath is built into the device. You will never be able to speak of this test to anyone who may someday go through it. Not a younger soulmate who will go to wizarding school, not a child of yours, not a friend, no one. If your soulmate has already severed their end of the bond, or is not magical, you may speak to them of what has occurred. But if anyone else around you fits any of the conditions, or you do not put proper precautions in place, you will be unable to speak. An _Unspeakable_ , if you will. If only to the smallest degree.”

_“I should have died. I should have died before betraying my bond.”_ She thought tiredly, utterly spent and numb to everything but the pain from the tearing and absence of her bond. Then the pain pulled her under and blackness consumed all.

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Soo...I've wanted to write a soulmate AU for a long time....and this is really not that story. But it was the one that demanded to be written first. I will probably or maybe write the other one(s) and make it a series. We'll see. Please be kind, I'm terribly sensitive, so if you don't like it just don't read it. I enjoy helpful comments and hearing from readers about where they think the story might go. I have an idea of where I want this story to go, but sometimes I get inspiration for all you lovely readers. Thanks for reading.  
> See you next chapter! 
> 
> Wingzrooke


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